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Using a rambling rose as ground cover under ugly hedge base

jayne10bjayne10b Posts: 105
in Plants
We have a privet hedge in our garden which looks fine from about a foot off the ground, but is bare at the base and the soil underneath is visible.  Adjacent to the hedge is a bed where I'm thinking I could plant a rambling rose, and then train it along the ground under the hedge to make it look much more attractive.  Would need to be about 15m long.  Has anyone achieved anything similar.  Photo to give you an idea of what I'm trying to cover.






Posts

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    It might make cutting the hedge a bit hazardous if the rose is thorny. I have snow-in-summer in the base of my hedge (dry enough there to stop it being quite as thuggish as it is in the open ground) and it grows up into the gaps. I've a pic somewhere that I've posted before - will see if I can find it.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • PerkiPerki Posts: 2,527
    edited March 2023
    I can't see this working to be honest a rambling rose will be a nightmare and it far more likely to want to grow up through the hedge, I don't know if it me how it looks on the picture but can you not put a roll of turf up to bottom of the hedge ( not under the hedge ) .
    They far better plants to plant in the gap like Hypericum calycinum it will more a less grow anywhere - Liriope full for shaded conditions - grasses - mahonia aquifolium - another small hedge - geranium macrorrhizon . They plenty more to go at but could do to know light conditions south facing etc.

    If you really want rose you can get ground cover ones , have a look on the david austin website for ground cover roses
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Have to agree, almost anything would be better than a rambling Rose, in that space.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • jayne10bjayne10b Posts: 105
    Ah ok. Something that would grow to about knee height in a continuous ‘low hedge’ could work well. I quite like hypericum idea, but would welcome other choices. The site is part shade, but main issue is competition is for moisture I would think.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    There are roses sold as "ground cover".   The first ones came with the names of counties.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I can't really see the problem. If you don't want the bare strip, you could trim the hedge so that the base is wider than the top, which is the best way of creating a good hedge anyway, and then the base would gradually widen and thicken. 
    Or, add a little more turf to make the space smaller. 
    It looks as if there's some ivy in the middle of that pic. If so, that would easily fill the gap, although it could also become a problem in itself.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • bullfinchbullfinch Posts: 692
    How tall is the hedge? If you need to use a step ladder when you trim it you may find that any thing planted in the space will get damaged .
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Here are a few pics that show snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum) in my hedge bottom (not the pic I had in mind - can't find that one). It tends to wander forward into the border but is fairly easy to hoick out, and it bounces back from being walked on when I cut the hedge. It flowers in late spring/early summer (middle pic) when hedge cutting doesn't happen anyway in case there are birds nesting (although usually there aren't because it's a smallish hedge, next to the road/pavement, and there are a couple of cats that often hang out around there.)
     
     
      

    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • owd potterowd potter Posts: 979
    I would offer a word of warning about Hypericum Calycinum.
    Yes it will grow anywhere, and will certainly relish the challenge at the base of your privet hedge but, in my experience it will not stop growing anywhere and everywhere it can spread to. 
    I inherited it with the house and didn't know what I had at the time, it's semi evergreen keeping leaves year round tho' they turn brown late winter, it's flowers look exotic and are quite attractive.
    This is where it was in 2018

    However, this stuff is an absolute thug. It's rhizomes are deep and very vigorous, it has rampaged through 3 of my front borders, tunnelled beneath pavings and punched through masonry walls.

    This was it last summer. It has now grown beneath the slabbed path into both ends of the lower front border

    I cut it back very hard and dig/pull up metres of the stuff every year in an attempt to contain it's encroachment. It cannot be eradicated by anything less than digging up my entire front garden now. 
    It has and continues to cause me a lot of hard work but oddly enough, I still do not mind seeing it!!, 
    Do not plant this stuff anywhere that it can become a problem for you or any neighbours would be my advice.

       
    Just another day at the plant...
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I can echo that @owd potter. We had a patch here when we moved in 16 years ago, I hated it so dug it all out but in my ignorance threw it on a piece of corner waste ground within our border next to our front hedge. It has colonized that and is now popping up in the green verge of the road outside.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
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